Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:10:19.371Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Who is almighty?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2019

DANIEL KODAJ*
Affiliation:
Institute of Philosophy, Eotvos Lorand University, Muzeum krt 4, 1088 Budapest, Hungary
*

Abstract

Peter Geach recommended conceiving of God as almighty, not as omnipotent. I argue that Geach's heuristic explanation of almightiness does not provide a workable definition, and I propose one on his behalf. The resulting notion turns out to have precisely those theoretical virtues that Geach advertised: it is immune to the logical puzzles that bedevil omnipotence, and it is better suited to religious contexts than the notion of maximal power that informs typical definitions of omnipotence.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Robert M. (1977) ‘Middle knowledge and the problem of evil’, American Philosophical Quarterly, 14, 109117.Google Scholar
Flint, Thomas P. & Freddoso, Alfred J. (1983) ‘Maximal power’, in Freddoso, A. J. (ed.) The Existence and Nature of God (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press), 81113.Google Scholar
Geach, P. T. (1973) ‘Omnipotence’, Philosophy, 48, 720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Daniel J. (2005) Divinity and Maximal Greatness (New York NY: Routledge).Google Scholar
Hoffman, Joshua & Rosenkrantz, Gary (1980) ‘What an omnipotent agent can do’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 11, 119.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Joshua & Rosenkrantz, Gary (2017) ‘Omnipotence’, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Google Scholar
Mann, William E. (1988) ‘God's freedom, human freedom, and God's responsibility for sin’, in Morris, T. V. (ed.) Divine and Human Action (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press), 182210.Google Scholar
Morris, Thomas V. (1986) ‘Perfection and power’, Philosophy of Religion, 20, 165168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plantinga, Alvin (1974) God, Freedom, and Evil (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans).Google Scholar
Plantinga, Alvin (2011) Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plato (1997) ‘Euthyphro’ (tr. G. M. A. Grube), in his Complete Works, ed. Cooper, John M. (Indianapolis IN: Hackett Publishing Company), 116.Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard (1973) ‘Omnipotence’, American Philosophical Quarterly, 10, 231237.Google Scholar
Wielenberg, Erik (2000) ‘Omnipotence again’, Faith and Philosophy, 17, 2647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wierenga, Edward (1983) ‘Omnipotence defined’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 43, 363375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zagzebski, Linda (1990) ‘What if the impossible had been actual?’, in Beatty, M. (ed.) Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press), 165183.Google Scholar